Übersetzungen «Songs of the Land»

«Leben nach den Naturgesetzen – die Cree im Norden Kanadas» - Manuel Menrath

Wandering spirits

Alone in a crowd
A crowd of millions
Rushing against time
Rushing day by day
A rat race they say
So be it I say
I sit by sidelines
I sit by the sidewalk
Unnoticed unseen
I watch you go by
Day after day
Watching you among the million
Who do the same as you
I wish I could be you
I wish I wish
Each and everyday

My feet are sore
My hunger beyond ache
My last meal
Only if I could remember
My cup is my meal
I wait each day
Hoping you would notice
Hoping to see the glitter
The glitter of silver
Such is my day
As I watch you each day
Each day you walk by
I wallow in my mind
I wallow in my thoughts
I sit among many
Of different creed
Of different nationality
Of different circumstance
We each have a past
We each have a story
We each have a history
A shared history
Of innocence and wealth
Long lost in time
Through untold unknown
Circumstance
Sit with me if you dare
Sit with me
Sit with me and listen
I have a story to share
I will share if you care
Our time is precious
Our time is short
We are prey
We are prey to time
To the elements
To the predators among you
We are prey to our situation
Today my heart soars
Today could be the last
Today could be the past
Of memories that bring me here
Sit with me my friend
Sit with me
Eat with me
I am human
I am
I am.

It isn’t about hate

It isn’t about hate
It isn’t about the police
It is something else
It is something unavoidable
It is finally accepting the truth
It is finally acknowledging
Our history
Our past
Together
On planet earth

The powers that be
the spirits that be
are clashing
Good and bad
Like thunder and lightening
warm and cold air colliding
the storm will be fierce

Together we will rise
Together we will put down
the books we use for hatred
the guns and bullets
we will rise
stand together

we will rise
stand together
Like the comet neowise
When a meteor approaches
And like the virus
Once it hits
they know no colour
they don’t discriminate
To them
we occupy the same planet
the earth we call home
they can both wipe us out

we know the truth is coming out
The ugliness of hate
the hate that had been hidden
covered
clothed in sheep skin
We see it happening
statues being toppled
in Europe

the wall came down
The much glorified symbols of hate
Are coming down
Give it time
the statues are many
throughout every city
in ever municipality
Give it time

The mindset is deeply engrained
We are all in this together
to embrace the truth
the history
the experience we suffered
the experience we inflicted
from ignorance
intolerance

Our children’s children
demand we do so
for their well being
their future.

They see no colour
they don’t hate the weather
they embrace the weather
for what it is
they see it coming
the clouds dissipating

Let’s clear our minds
our mindsets
we are together on planet earth
One rock can wipe us all

one virus
can kill us all

thus far we have been spared
Life can change
in the blink of an eye.

Albany river runs through our hearts

Her vein runs through the heart
of our diverse nations
Through lands filled with live resources
and countless minerals
our elders lived happily
in harmony, amongst themselves
Sharing the countless resources
that lay abundantly available
along the banks and shores
of Our Mother nature’s vein

Many memories abound
in our elders’ minds today
of simple pleasurable times
when the waters were virgin
Each bend and point would have a name
often linked to characteristics
of the terrain
or of different encounters with
man and nature.
Many generations intimately
know these places
and many today will not know

Outside intrusions eradicated the
flow of knowledge
taking and causing the people to
abandon unknowingly
their place within nature’s womb
Our children today
are born without intimate connectivity to
the lands and waters
Knowledge and linkage are lost
What is the legacy we leave behind?

Hounds of Ste. Anne’s

Innocence was detained inside this school
Scores of children brought together
A national policy
designed by the encroaching nation

Christianity under the guise of the holy word

The government representing the Crown
worked in sync, relentlessly,
to gather them up
From locations reaching far inland
along the coast and surrounding communities
They gathered them up
Assimilation was underway
The policy was interpreted as God's law
Abandon your hold
Let the clergy take your place
To care for the child
Many generations of families would concede
Through fear and faith, they allowed the church
To bring them to the refuge of St. Anne's
To the nestle of the predator
Only the victim can account
The pain, the suffering
the degradation
Endured while enslaved under the nation's policy
It was designed to civilize
Cleansed the indian of his pagan way
Indoctrinate him into the main fabric of Canada
As every survivor will tell you

Each day a constant ache lingered in our hearts
a yearning to feel the tender embrace of our families.

Each night we laid in fear
waiting for the night to end.
The corridors came alive in the night
shadows moved, commotion all around, senses came alert
waiting, wondering
What is this fear I sense all around?
What cry do I hear?
Was he having a bad dream?
Was he yearning for mom's tender care?
Efforts to console were met with anger
A certain kind of fear in his glare
A common scenario throughout the years
Each victim left to bear the unforgivable, unfathomable,
act and assault on the being
A despicable memory
An experience encrypted forever
Like dogs like hounds
They preyed unmercifully
forever to be remembered
As the hounds of Ste. Anne’s.

Dance in the night

Eerily she dances in the night
Deeply entranced
Moving to and fro
Arms hanging limb
Her legs in bent motion
moving her side to side
Staring blankly
Unaware of any presence
Unaware and in disarray
Eerily she dances
Eerily she dances
While the children lay
While the children lay in wonder
While the children wait
As she eerily dances
To a tune that plays
Silently in the night
Silently in her mind
In bed
In fear
They have seen it
They have seen it
Time and time
over and over
Soon it will be over
Soon she will sleep
Soon the children can sleep

It is so each time
When mother buys her elixir
Her cheap elixir
That which sends her
Into a trance
Into a frenzy
Into a drunken state
As always
She will not recall
She will not recollect
Her eery dance in the night
A dance without sound
A dance without song
A dance her children know
A dance her children watch
A dance her children wonder
As she eerily dances
In silence in the night

They have seen it
Time and time
over and over
Soon it will be over
Soon the children can sleep

Eerily she dances in the night
Deeply entranced
Moving to and fro
To a song That plays
Silently in mind
Silently in space
Inside the mind

A song that has played
Over and over
To her mind’s content

Dead Indian

The only good Indian is a dead one
This they do
Over and over
Throughout the centuries
the declaration
The Papal Bull
Paved the way
The Pope's decree
Absolution
For whomever kills the Indian
God's will decreed
God's will be thy salvation
And so they did
And so they do
The year is 2018
The atrocity continues

Coulten Bushie
Joey Hookimaw
Agnes Sutherland
Just to name a few
In the year of the lord
2018
Countless more
Too many to name
Assimilate they must
Kill the Indian within
Indoctrinate
Take the child away
Scoop them all at will
The policy of
Canada's founding fathers
Must prevail

Elections come and go
Policies remain
Nothing changes
After all it is 2018
The leader says
Niceties exchanged
Nothing is said
Of the dead Indian policy
Sisters have paid the price
Brothers have gone forever
Broken hearts remain
Tears drop endlessly

Cascading
Shrouding our eyes
Our pains
We hear the cries
The mourning is forever in our hearts

It is
It has been
The legacy of our past
Untold atrocities
Untold injustices
An unjust society
Forever perpetuating
The ideology of
The only good Indian is a dead Indian
This they do
Over and over
A prevailing ideology
Enshrined
Instilled
In the mind of too many

Dying Embers

Like the embers of a dying fire
The charcoal remains
Ambient
Glowing gently
Dimmer at each passing moment
Soon to be ash
A passing of time
A passing of memory
Knowledge coming to pass
What remains is ourselves
The life we live today
The legacy of our past
Passed on
soon to be our legacy
What knowledge will we impart?
What memory will be ours?
What legacy is ours to depart
For the children of our children?

Like the dying embers
It is they who can rekindle
The fire that remains within
Theirs is to fan
To reignite the glow
Of the dim embers
A passing of memory
With knowledge they can
Without it the fire dies
Will it be our legacy?
Will our legacy
be the ones who let the fire die?
Of the dim embers

With knowledge they can
Without it the fire dies
Will it be our legacy?
Will our legacy
be the ones who let the fire die?
Will our misery defeat our destiny?
Will we wallow in our misery?
To a point of no return
Thus far we have been resilient
Life continues to find a way
Our numbers continue to rebound
Impressive as it may seem
Our identity
Our culture
Our language
Our lands
Continue to erode
With the passing of time
Knowledge slips away

The lands were once home

The elders speak of a time
A time not that long ago
When each family was free
Free to live
Free to travel
Free to harvest
Throughout the lands they did
Throughout the lands they knew
Intimately they knew these lands
They knew the rivers
They knew the lakes
They knew the families
Each tributary had a name
Big or small
Each was significant
Each was a favourite
Each and all
They were homesteads
By season they were occupied
There was a place for early fall
A place
A time to harvest
Gathering and storing
For the long harsh winter

A time when winter was harsh
When the nights are long
When temperatures plummeted
To lows below lows
The elders reminisce
The elders recall vividly
Each and every moment
While they lived on the lands
Different memories abound
Different stories
Different challenges
Different escapades
Survivor instinct
Survivor’s knowledge
Survivor’s experience
It was about living
Living off the lands

Harvesting for sustenance
Harvesting for survival
The lands provided
All that was needed
All that was required
Families flourished
Families thrived
Kinship all around
It was everyone’s paradise
Each new moon blessed
bountiful harvests
All around
On land
From the water
From the birds of flight
Each season ushering in
The new beginning

Worlds collide

The worlds collide
Time and time again
A never ending ride
A constant tide
A tsunami stretched in time
Washing all in it’s path
Overtaking overpowering
Overtaking a nation
Overtaking nations
Through the power of greed
Through the powers that be
Every element is a commodity
Every element must be owned
Every element is development
Every element is progress

Through the powers that be
Traditional customs
Traditional pursuits
Traditional harvests
Stand in the way
Stand against progress
Stand against the powers
The powers that be
Tribal custom keepers
Tribal custom traditions
Collide with this serpent
This corporate serpent
Hell bent
In devouring
In devouring all that is custom
In devouring all that is tradition
Hell bent in devouring lands
Devouring traditions

Devouring any natural beauty
In Ivory towers they sit
In ivory towers they see
In ivory towers they do not see
In ivory towers they see
Nothing beyond the glass
Nothing beyond the glass window
The window they look out on

Two worlds colliding
Two worlds divided
Two worlds separated by honour
Honour to the people
Honour to the unborn
Honour to the land
Honour to greed
Honour to thyself
Honour to the serpent
Honour to the corporate beast

Songs of the Land

Bündner Musiker vertonen Gedichte über das Leben von Indigenen in Kanada. Ergänzend befindet sich auf dem Theaterplatz eine täglich geöffnete Installation, die einen vertieften Einblick in diese Welt ermöglicht.

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